Faculty in Conversations on Race Pedagogy (CORPs)
This project initiated an innovative “Train the Trainer” model. A team of faculty from each of the four schools, the college and the library were selected to participate in a rigorous four-stage training program. This program increased their own understanding of race and racism in a U.S. context, trained them to facilitate dialogues about race and racism and then prepared them to facilitate conversations among their faculty colleagues about how to talk about race in classrooms. In the pages that follow, each school provides an overview of their work.
Dialogues about race in the classroom call for students to analyze systems of oppression, consider their own intersectional identities, and consider how structural racism is woven throughout society in ways that create inequitable access to necessary resources. In line with the Ignatian and Jesuit vision, facilitated dialogues about race and racism create an educational experience for students that allows for a critical understanding of racism and deep reflection on their own implications in systems of oppression.
This initiative sought to provide faculty the training and support that allowed them to facilitate dialogues about race and racism in connection with their curricula and disciplines. Such dialogues in the classroom call for students to analyze systems of oppression, consider their own intersectional identities and location in systems of oppression and consider how internalized, interpersonal, institutional and structural racism are woven throughout society in ways that create inequitable access to necessary resources. In line with the Ignatian and Jesuit vision, facilitated dialogues about race and racism create an educational experience for students that allows for a critical understanding of racism and deep reflection on their own implication in systems of oppression.
Stage Two (Fall 2021-Spring 2022)
- In the fall, faculty leaders returned to their colleges to host year-long dialogues with faculty about how to talk about race in their classes. Faculty leaders met mid-semester to check in. They returned for a three-day retreat in intersession to revisit their plans and then completed the dialogue series in Spring 2022.
Stage One (Summer 2021)
- A small cohort of faculty from each of the four schools, college and library were invited to a “Train-the-trainer” Summer Training Institute led by Race Forward and Anna Yeakley consultancy. This Summer Institute provided these faculty with race theory and concepts to increase their own understanding of race and racism in a U.S. context, trained them to facilitate dialogues about race and racism, and then prepared them to facilitate conversations among their faculty colleagues about how to talk about race in classrooms.
- After the selection process was completed, the cohort of faculty leaders participated in a two-week training institute, hosted by Race Forward, a nationally renowned training organization, and Anna Yeakley and Teresa Brett, two of the foremost trainers in intergroup dialogue.